Battle of Yellow Tavern
Battle of Yellow Tavern | |||||||
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Part of the Overland Campaign of the American Civil War | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
United States (Union) | CSA (Confederacy) | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Philip Sheridan | |||||||
Strength | |||||||
12,000 [1] | 5,000 [1] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
625 casualties |
450 casualties 300 captured |
The Battle of Yellow Tavern was fought on May 11, 1864, as part of the
Background
The Overland Campaign was
On May 9, the most powerful cavalry force ever seen in the
The Union cavalry column, which at times stretched for over 13 miles (21 km), reached the Confederate forward supply base at Beaver Dam Station that evening. The Confederate troops had been able to destroy many of the critical military supplies before the Union arrived, so Sheridan's men destroyed numerous railroad cars and six locomotives of the Virginia Central Railroad, destroyed telegraph wires, and rescued almost 400 Union soldiers who had been captured in the Battle of the Wilderness.[2]
Battle
Stuart moved his 4,500 troopers to get between Sheridan and Richmond. The two forces met at noon on May 11 at Yellow Tavern, an abandoned inn located 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Richmond (Present day location is at the intersection of Mountain Rd, Brook Rd, and Telegraph Rd. 37.640111, -77.459593).
The fighting kept up for an hour after Stuart was wounded with Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee taking temporary command.
Aftermath
In the larger picture, Sheridan's raid proved to be a costly mistake. Chasing Stuart was another side show for the campaign, which would be decided by what the armies did at Spotsylvania. By abandoning the main theater of conflict to pursue his whimsical raid south, Sheridan deprived Grant of an important resource. His victory at Yellow Tavern offered scant solace to the blue-clad soldiers hunkering in trenches above the courthouse town. Sheridan's absence hurt Grant at Spotsylvania in much the same way that Stuart's absence from Gettysburg had handicapped Lee.
Gordon C. Rhea[8]
The Union cavalrymen suffered 625 casualties, but they captured 300 Confederate prisoners and recovered almost 400 Union prisoners. Sheridan disengaged his men and headed south toward Richmond. Although tempted to burst through the modest defenses to the north of the city, they continued south across the
Notes
- ^ a b CWSAC Report Update
- ^ Longacre, p. 265; Eicher, p. 674.
- ^ "Battle Summary". National Park Service. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
- ^ Herrmann, Allison. "Battle of Yellow Tavern". Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
- ^ Smith, p. 242; Salmon, p. 283; Starr, p. 107; Thomas, p. 292; Edward G. Longacre, writing in a June 2004 Civil War Times article, claims that Huff's shot was from 400 yards (370 m) away, an arguably impressive feat with a revolver; in his book, Lincoln's Cavalrymen (p. 268), Longacre states that Huff was able to advance "close enough" to Stuart to shoot him in the abdomen, although he was not aware at the time that his victim was Stuart.
- ^ Rhea, pp. 209, 390
- ^ "The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies; Series I, Vol. XXXVI, Part 1". Retrieved April 30, 2019.
- ^ Rhea, p. 212.
- ^ Eicher, p. 674; Salmon, p. 283.
References
- ISBN 0-684-84944-5.
- Longacre, Edward G. Lincoln's Cavalrymen: A History of the Mounted Forces of the Army of the Potomac. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2000. ISBN 0-8117-1049-1.
- Rhea, Gordon C. The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern May 7–12, 1864. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-8071-2136-3.
- Rhea, Gordon C. To the North Anna River: Grant and Lee, May 13–25, 1864. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2000. ISBN 0807131113.
- Salmon, John S. The Official Virginia Civil War Battlefield Guide. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2001. ISBN 0-8117-2868-4.
- Smith, Derek. The Gallant Dead: Union & Confederate Generals Killed in the Civil War. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2005. ISBN 0-8117-0132-8.
- Starr, Stephen Z. The Union Cavalry in the Civil War. Vol. 2, The War in the East from Gettysburg to Appomattox 1863–1865. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1981. ISBN 978-0-8071-3292-0.
- ISBN 0-8061-3193-4.
- ISBN 978-0-7432-7819-5.
- National Park Service battle description
- CWSAC Report Update
Further reading
- Grimsley, Mark. And Keep Moving On: The Virginia Campaign, May–June 1864. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002. ISBN 0-8032-2162-2.
- Trudeau, Noah Andre. Bloody Roads South: The Wilderness to Cold Harbor, May–June 1864. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1989. ISBN 978-0-316-85326-2.
External links
- Monument to J.E.B. Stuart at Yellow Tavern Archived 2016-05-10 at the Wayback Machine